Today is Armed Forces Day

I just watched a special on HBO with families of fallen soldiers. They read letters and shared pictures of thier sons and daughters, husbands, sisters and brothers. I just and cried. Selfishly really because while my heart mourned for them, I sat praying that my family would be spared that pain. My brother Travis is over there in Iraq...again. This is his third trip to that God forsaken piece of dirt. I say God forsaken because I think it is. I think those people have forgotten who God is. I don't think that anyone who had true faith and love in God could do what those horrible "insurgents" do. But then I must remember, they don't believe in God. They believe in some ALLAH who they think would respect and admire that they take lives in His name.

Travis would be ashamed of me for saying this but...I think we should just blow the entire pile of dirt to hell and let God sort out the good from the bad. Not very Christian of me, but I'm so afraid. If we don't stop them, all of them, they'll come here again. I'm afraid for my brother. Eventually those stupid people will figure out that if they want to disable us down there, disable the aircraft. In order to disable the aircraft, they'd have to take out the places where the aircraft refuel and get repaired. I know my brother is in one of those places. He's an aircraft mechanic. Those helicopters that swooped in and allowed for the rescue of Jessica Lynch? Those were his.

Travis is my brother and for most of my life I admired him, looked up to him and held him above all others in my family. It wasn't hard, because my whole childhood I was always asked why I couldn't be more like him. He was "the good child". The rest of us were always lacking something. I'm smarter now and grown up and I know that he's just as imperfect as the rest of us. It makes him more real I guess. I'll worry about him until he's out of the military. I figured he'd have to go over there once but then he'd be ok. Now, on this third trip, I am far more worried than ever before.

I pray that because Travis is over there, perhaps God will spare my other brother from having to go over again. My Mom has had so much hurt and pain in her life, most of which was caused by us kids (sorry Mom). I think God should spare her this pain that I watched other mothers go through.

I still support our troops. I love our troops. I know they are doing what they've been ordered to do and will be held blameless in the eyes of God. But I don't believe in this war.



I love you big brother! (He's the light haired guy. The other one is his friend Frog. We love Frog too.)